Metal building tube for mounting hinges



y 28, 1968 H L. OWEN 3,385,003

METAL BUILDING TUBE FOR MOUNTING HINGES Filed March 21, 1966 2Sheets-Sheet 1 44 7////// ///T//// /4 Z 5a w 2 m; J

INVENTOR. HARRY L. OWEN MZW ATTORNEY May 28, 1968 H. 1.. OWEN METALBUILDING TUBE FOR MOUNTING HINGES- 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed March 21, 1966I I/ /l 76 74 7g l 22 Z 2a INVENTOR. HARRY OWEN g ind? W ATTORNEY UnitedStates Patent 3,385,003 METAL BUILDING TUBE FOR MOUNTING HINGES Harry L.Owen, 907 Cedar St., Niles, Mich. 49120 Filed Mar. 21, 1966, Ser. No.536,102 8 Claims. (Cl. 49-504) ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A metalbuilding member having a slot in one wall through which a door hingeextends. Said door hinge is secured in face engagement with an adjacentangularly extendin wall of said building member. The internal corner ofsaid building member at the junction of the slotted wall and theadjacent wall is provided with a fillet through which the hinge passes.

This invention relates to a metal building tube for use in mountinghinges. More particularly, the invention relates to tube structures thatare commonly used in door frames and in low rise curtain wallconstructions, and are commonly formed of aluminum or aluminum alloys.

It is common to mount the plate of a door hinge upon such door frametubing by forming a slot in thetubing through which the hinge plate maybe passed for face engagement with the inner surface of a wall of thetubing to which the hinge plate is to be secured. The metal tubing soprovided is commonly formed of an aluminum alloy and is of a wallthickness in the order of .125 inch and is of extruded character. It hasbeen found that tubing of this character is subject to tear or fractureat or adjacent to the slit through which the hinge plate passes andcaused when the door is violently swung by strong winds. Heretofore ithas been necessary to apply a reinforcement plate over the butt or hingeplate of the hinge in order to successfully resist a tearing action, butthe use of such reinforcement plates is objectionable because of theexpense of the plates and the cost of installation resulting from use ofthe plates.

This invention pertains to metal building tubes for mounting hingeswherein a door blade is mounted upon a tubular metal building member bymeans of a hinge having a hinge plate extending through a slot in onewall of said member and secured inface engagement with an adjacentangularly extending wall of said tubular member. Said tubular member hasan integral internal longitudinal fillet at the junction between theslotted wall and the wall to which the hinge plate is secured. The saidfillet is interrupted by said slot and is of a thickness at leastsubstantially equal to the thickness of the hinge plate.

It is the primary object of this invention to produce :a tubular doorframe construction which is of novel crosssectional configuration toincrease the resistance to tearing of the tube incident to stressapplied thereto incident to violent swinging of the door in use.

A further object is to provide a device of this character which is soconstructed that it affords great resistance to tearing of a part of thetube adjacent the slot through which the hinge plate extends withoutincrease of the overall cross-sectional area of the tubular member andwithout increase in the cost of the tubular member.

A further object is to provide a tube of this character having aninternal fillet at a corner thereof in which a hinge plate receivingslot is formed in a tubular structure having a conventional wallthickness adjacent said fillet and having reduced wall thickness inother parts of the tube spaced from the area of the tube at which the3,385,003 Patented May 28, 1968 hinge plate is connected, and soarranged as to avoid sacrifice of strength of the tube in use.

Other objects will be apparent from the following specification.

In the drawings:

FIG. 1 is a fragmentary elevational view of a wall having a tubular doorframe within which is mounted a door supported by hinges secured to theframe;

FIG. 2 is a transverse sectional view illustrating a tubula-r door framemember encircling and secured to a supporting column of a building andhaving door blades or panels hinged thereto;

FIG. 3 is a sectional view illustrating another embodiment of theinvention wherein a frame tube of rectangular section encircles a columnand has a door blade hinged thereto at an edge thereof;

FIG. 4 is a sectional view of a tube of rectangular cross-sectionencircling a column and having a door blade hinged thereto and extendingtherefrom at a different angle than the door blade extends in FIG. 3;

FIG. 5 is a sectional view taken on line 5-5 of FIG. 1, and illustratingthe mounting of the door supporting hinge upon a unitary extruded metalcolumn;

Referring to the drawings, and particularly to FIGS. 1 and 5, thenumeral 10 designates a building wall having a door opening thereinoutlined by a door frame 12 formed of tubular-metal members, such asextruded continuous or integral'aluminum alloy metal tubes, said doorframe members being suitably interconnected in any manner wellunderstood in the art and secured to the building wall. A door blade orpanel 14 of any suitable construction fits in the door frame and issupported by means of hinges 16.

In the construction illustrated in FIG. 5, the tubular part used in thedoor frame has a pair of wide walls 18 and a pair of narrow walls 20which are formed integrally as by extrusion. Internal fillets 22 areformed integrally at one or more corners or intersections of a wide wall18 and a narrow wall 20. As here shown two fillets are shown which aredisposed diagonally relative to each other. The fillets 22 arepreferably defined by an inner surface 24 which is substantiallyequiangularly disposed relative to the inner surfaces of the adjacentwalls 18 and 20. The major wall thickness at the fillet is preferablysubstantially twice the wall thickness of the wall portions 18 adjacentthereto.

Conventional rectangular door frame tubes of this character are commonlyof an external cross-sectional dimension of one and three-quarter inchesby four inches, and of a wall thickness of .125 inch throughout. In thepresent construction, wherein the plates 26 of the hinges 16 are of athickness in the order of one-eighth inch and are adapted for faceengagement with a wall v18 for approximately one and one-quarter inches,I propose to form the portion of the wall v18 adjacent to the fillet at28, i.e., the port-ion to which the hinge plate 26 is secured, of athickness in the order of .125 inch. The remaining portion 30 of eachwall 18 is of tapered thickness, reaching a thickness of .1 inch at theportion thereof joining the unfilleted opposite end wall 20. Each of theend walls 20 is preferably of a thickness of .1 inch throughout themajor part of its extent, or at least one-half of the crosssect-ionaldimension thereof. If desired the cross-sectional thickness from themid-point of each wall 20 toward the adjacent fillet 24 mayprogressively increase to a thickness not greater than .125 inch. Bythis arrangement the increase in the cross-sectional area of the tubewall occurring at the two fillets 22 is compensated by the reduction inthickness of the tapered wall portion 30 of the wall 18 clear of thehinge plates and the reduced thickness of the transverse walls '20. ThusI have designed a tube whose actual cross-sectional area is 1.241 squareinches. This is to be compared with the actual crosssectional area of aconventional non-filleted tube of a uniform wall thickness of .125 inchwhose area equals 1.375 square inches. Thus the actual cross-sectionalarea of the tube, as shown in FIG. 5, is 90.5% of the crosssectionalarea of a conventional tube of the same external dimension and notprovided with the fillets.

The fillets provide reinforcing at the points at which slots are formedin the tube for passage of a hinge plate into the tube into faceengagement with part 28 of wall 18 for anchorage thereto by securingscrews 32. The increased thickness of the tube at the fillets at theopposite ends of the hinge plate receiving slot reinforce and rigidifythe tube at the point at which tearing stress is likely to be appliedthereto incident to violent opening or closing of a door in use. Thisreinforcement is so located that tearing of the tube under adverse usageconditions is resisted effectively and damage to the tube is avoideddespite the fact that the overall cross-sectional area of all walls ofthe tube and the resultant weight of the tube is less than the weight ofa conventional tube of uniform wall thickness. Thus, since the cost of atube is usually proportional to the amount of the metal used therein, myimproved construction permits a reduced cost of tubing while at the sametime increasing the strength thereof and its resistance to tear. Thetapering of the wall thickness in the parts 30 of the walls 18 avoids anabrupt break in the side walls of the tube spaced from the points atwhich the hinge plates are secured and thus avoids a pronounced bend atthe edge of the hinge plate.

It will be understood that the construction of FIG. 5 is illustrativeand pertains to a construction of tube wherein the hinge plate is to besecured to one of the wide walls 18 of the tube. In instances where thetube is to have universal usage, that is, wherein a hinge plate is to besecured to either a wide wall 18 or a narrow wall 20 of the tube, it maybe desirable to provide fillets at all four corners of the tube and alsoto provide a tube whose walls are of uniform thickness throughout. Insuch constructions added weight and cost are involved as compared toconventional tubes, but the use of such tubes is less expensive thanstandard tubes to which separate reinforcing plates are secured in orderto overcome the danger of tearing of the tube incident to violentoperation of a door.

Another embodiment of the invention is illustrated in FIG. 2 andutilizes multiple section tube attached to and encompassing a supportingcolumn 40. The multiple section tube is best composed of a plate ormember 42 provided with a pair of marginal perpendicular flanges 44,each of which is of tapered cross-section defined by inner divergingfaces 46 interrupted by a longitudinal locking shoulder 48. The member42 is preferably secured to the supporting column at longitudinallyspaced points by screws or other securing members 50 located mid-widthof the member 42. The width of the member 42 is slightly greater thanthe diameter or other dimension of the supporting column 40.

The sectional tubular member is completed by a U- shaped part 52 havinga web 54 of the same width as the web 42 and a pair of legs 56, each ofa width slightly greater than the adjacent dimension of the column 40.The legs 56 terminate in longitudinal tapered latch portions 58complementary to the parts 46, 48 of the flanges 44 of the plate 42 andengaging and interlocking therewith, as illustrated in FIG. 2, with asnap lock action. The parts 42 and 52, when assembled, provide a tubeenclosing the column 40 with sufiicient clearance to permit requiredrelative adjustment for the purpose of plumbing or levelling the tube ina building structure.

The U-shaped member 52 is provided with an internal fillet 60 extendinglongitudinally at each interior corner thereof at the junctions betweenweb 54 and the respective legs 56. The fillets will preferably be ofsubstantially the same dimensions as previously described, that is, of adimension equal to or greater than the thickness of one of the hingeplates 25 of a hinge 16 employed to mount a door blade or panel 14.

In the preferred embodiment the thickness of the parts of the web 54 andlegs 56 of the member 52 adjacent to the fillets 60, that is, the partsat which the hinge plates are adapted to be secured, may be greater thanat other parts. Thus such parts for a width of 1% to 1 /2 inches fromthe filleted corners may be of a thickness of .125 inch, and theremainder of said parts may taper to a thickness in the order of .1inch. Similarly, the plate 42 may be of a thickness of .1 inch. By suchselection of thicknesses the total weight of the assembled tube may bereduced to approximately 85% of the weight of a conventional multiplepart tube of the same dimensions having a uniform wall thickness of .125inch as is now common. The device also maintains all of the advantagesof snap interlock and rapid assembly which characterize conventionalmultiple section tubes and provide adequate strength for mounting ofdoors which can extend in any direction from the tube with the hingeplate thereof secured either to the web 54 or to a leg 56 asrespectively illustrated in FIG. 2. It will be understood that the hingeplates will pass through slots in themember 52 and are so positioned asto extend through the reinforcing fillet 60 and permit face engagementof binge plate 26 with the inner face of one of the parts 54 or 56 ofthe tube.

It will be seen that the FIG. 2 construction provides a strongconstruction increasing the resistance thereof to tear compared to thatexperienced with conventional tubes, and at the same time permittingreduction of the amount of metal used and reduction of the cost of thetubing while retaining ease of installation characterizing conventionalconstructions.

Another embodiment of the invention is illustrated in FIGS. 3 and 4,wherein a sectional rectangular tubular member is assembled over astructural member 70,, such as a metal channel. The tubular unit ispreferably formed from a U-shaped part 72 having a narrow web 74 andcomparatively wide legs 76, one of which is secured to the structuralmember 70 as by screws or bolts (not shown). The legs 76 are of a widthgreater than the width of the structural member 70 and project fromopposite sides of said structural member, as shown. Inner fillets 78extend longitudinally at the corners between the web 74 and the legs 76.The free margins 80 of the legs constitute longitudinal tapered latchparts interrupted by a longitudinal shoulder and engageable bycomplementary tapered shouldered latch flanges 82 extendingperpendicularly from the opposite margins of tube wall 84. It will beunderstood that the parts 80 and 82 interengage and interlock by a snapaction to effect assembly of the tube parts. The fillets accommodate theformation of slots to receive hinge plates 26 of hinges 16 mountingpanels 12. These door blades or panels may extend substantially flushwith the tube shown in FIG. 3 or may extend perpendicularly to the wall76 of the tube as shown in FIG. 4. The same advantages described withreference to the FIG. 2 construction are obtainable with theconstruction illustrated in FIGS. 3 and 4, including weight saving as aresult of thickening of the portions of the channel legs 76 and the web74 adjacent the fillets 78 with progressive reduction of the thicknessof the legs 76 toward their free ends from such portions and also theformation of the wall 84 of comparatively thin material.

While the preferred embodiments of the invention have been illustratedand described, it will be understood that changes in the constructionmay be made within the scope of the appended claims without departingfrom the spirit of the invention.

I claim:

1. In a building construction wherein a door blade is mounted upon atubular metal building member by means of a hinge having a hinge plateextending through a slot in one wall of said member and secured in faceengagement with an adjacent angularly extending wall of said tubularmember, the improvement comprising an integral internal longitudinalfillet in said tubular member at the junction between the slotted walland the wall to which said hinge plate is secured, said fillet beinginterrupted by said slot and being of a thickness at least substantiallyequal to the thickness of said hinge plate.

2. The construction defined in claim 1, wherein said tubular metalbuilding member constitutes an integral rectangular extruded tube ofaluminum alloy having at least two longitudinal fillets therein atdiagonally disposed internal corners thereof.

3. The construction defined in claim 1, wherein a longitudinal portionof the wall at which said hinge plate is secured is of maximum thicknessadjacent said fillet and is of progressively reduced thicknessthroughout the remainder thereof.

4. The construction defined in claim 2, wherein a longitudinal portionof at least one wall adjacent each fillet is of maximum thickness andthe remainder of said wall is of progressively reduced thickness.

5. The construction defined in claim 1 wherein said tubular metal memberencircles a building structural memher, and said tubular member isformed of a pair of sections having marginal snap interlock means, andmeans securing one of said sections to said building structural member,the major portion of said tubular member having clearance with saidbuilding structural member.

6. The construction defined in claim 1, wherein said tubular memberencircles a building structural member and has clearance with the majorpart thereof, said tubular member being formed of a section of U-shapein crosssection having marginal longitudinal latch parts and a sectionhaving marginal longitudinal latch parts complementary to and adaptedfor snap interlock with said first latch parts, and means securing onesection of said tubular member to said building structural member.

7. The construction defined in claim 5, wherein said fillet is formed inthe other section of said tubular member.

8. The construction defined in claim 6, wherein said fillet is formed inthe section of said tubular member which is secured to said buildingstructural member in spaced relation to said building structural member.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,859,798 5/1932 Rix 49-383 XR2,138,523 11/1938 Habcrstump 4940O XR 2,717,061 9/1955 Katz 49-399 XR3,196,495 7/1965 Owen 4940O KENNETH DOWNEY, Primary Examiner.

